The Festivities Part II

It’s crazy how fast the weekend disappeared and how much sugar can be consumed in three days. Bleh. But really, it was an incredible weekend and I’d love to hit “replay” a couple of times.

Let’s see where I left off…there was a good turnout for the program Friday night despite the cold weather and not-so-ideal driving conditions. Most of us went early for final practices and when we were done I went into the main congregating area to see that my fiance had arrived safely  I was a little nervous about the entire church observing us but it actually went just fine and I’m so glad he was able to be there for the evening. After the program we came home to celebrate Mom’s birthday with cake and ice cream.

Then some of us went and worked off the cake playing hockey at the Schambach’s rink. I basically just skated around and got in people’s way and occasionally swung at the puck and less occasionally actually hit it. It was fun to watch Seth interact with my brothers and have that manly bonding time beating each other up on ice skates.

Saturday morning Seth came over and helped me do horse chores (he’s catching onto this cowboy thing pretty quick!). It was a relaxing day of games and family time. And Uncle Davy writing on Calvin’s forehead much to the delight of his parents.

Seth left for a family celebration in Fairbury around 1 so he wasn’t here to open gifts with our family, but he will be here Christmas Day so I suppose that makes up for it. We had originally planned on opening gifts early afternoon and going to out-of-town caroling Saturday evening but due to the bitter cold weather the caroling got cancelled and we celebrated at our usual time. While it’s not fun to have cancellations, it is fun to have a white Christmas! This year there were more people around the table than ever since Kurtis and Grammy are here. We followed our regular routine: candlelight dinner, Luke 2, gifts, and games/dessert.

Sunday morning the family had started breakfast when I got a text from Seth wondering if Wolcott had church. He had heard that Remington was cancelled and didn’t know if his family should still plan on coming to Wolcott for the day. A few phone calls were made, it was decided that we’d still have church, and the Waibels arrived just in time for morning service. There was a good number of Remington brethren who joined us for the day and it felt like a good sized Wednesday-night gathering with the mixed group. Everybody came to our house afterwards for dinner, except for Phil and Leah who had a family Christmas this weekend. Besides them not being there, it was a great time of intermingling with our families and growing our relationship despite the constant teasing  I guess I’ll just have to get used to it cause I don’t think the family has intentions on holding their tongues any time soon. One of the few pics from the evening is Edie reading books to Calvin and Ivory.

It’s hard to believe the weekend is already over, but there have been some fun things since then and I’m looking forward to having a quieter Christmas Day with my family and Seth at home. Hope you’re enjoying family gatherings and the joyous celebration of Jesus’ birth this season!